Essays
Wallace Shawn
I got on a Wallace Shawn kick after reading “Night Thoughts,” and picked this up from the library. Many of the essays take a similar left/socialist perspective on society. However, I didn’t like it quite as much as NT. To some extent, the content feels dated–many of the essays focus on W. Bush and the Iraq war. The essays are divided into two sections, with those in the second section being more about art than politics. I wasn’t particularly interested in his writing on art outside of how it shapes his politics. And finally, I think these essays mostly lack the more consciously simple language and voice of NT, which is one of the things I found appealing about it.
I’d recommend just reading NT and the Jacobin interview I linked in my review thereof.